An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Farnsworth Aerospace PK-8 Magnet School, St. Paul, MN on 07 May. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 16:14 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between NA1SS and N9XH. The contact should be audible over the middle U.S. and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English.
Farnsworth Aerospace is a PK-8 public school located in St. Paul, Minnesota; the home of NASA astronauts Digger Carey and Heidi Stefanyshyn-Piper. Farnsworth has over 1250 students, involved families, and outstanding community, education and business partners. Aerospace is integrated not only in the STEM subjects, but also art, music, history, writing - all areas of the curriculum. In 2004, Farnsworth was named a NASA Explorer School. We are very excited and honored to be part of the ARISS program. Our ARISS student team includes 6th, 7th and 8th graders. This team will lead our entire school and community effort to make our ARISS link up an "out of this world" event!
Plans for the team include meeting with our outstanding local HAM operator team, writing event press releases, working with technology department for broadcasting and taping the event to share during a Family Night. The team will also research and create teacher and student materials for PK-3 and
4-6 grade classrooms. They will become the team asking questions to the astronaut and speaking to any media.
Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows:
1. Do other planets and the sun look different from space or do they look
like they do from Earth?
2. Would you describe what it's like floating in space?
3. Since you travel around the Earth several times in 24 hours, how do you
know when it's night or day and when you should go to bed?
4. Do astronauts have trouble getting to sleep in outer space and when you
do sleep; is it different from sleeping on Earth?
5. Do cancer cells stop growing in outer space?
6. Are you able to eat any fresh food in space or is it all dried?
7. How often do astronauts on the ISS able to go on space walks?
8. How often and for how long do astronauts on the ISS exercise in order to
stay healthy?
9. Does your skin and hair grow faster in outer space?
10. How often do you change clothes and how do you clean your clothes in
space?
11. If you can get the Internet while on the ISS, what websites do you visit
the most and do you have any problems getting online?
12. How do you deal with the different stresses while you're in space?
13. What is your daily routine like?
14. When you go to the ISS what is the most challenging thing you have to
adapt to?
15. Is there anything in space that scares you?
16. When you return to Earth how do you feel and what's the first thing you
want to do?
17. Which is harder on a person's body, blasting off Earth to reach the ISS
or returning to Earth?
18. How much radiation do you receive in a day? How does this compare to what
you might receive on Earth?
19. In movies, when astronauts blast off from Earth the skin around their
mouths wobbles due to the amount of g's. Does this really happen?
Information about the upcoming ARISS contacts can be found at http://www.ariss.org/upcoming.htm#NextContact.
Next planned event(s):
TBD
Audio from this contact will be fed into the:
IRLP Node 9010 Discovery Reflector by the N9XH Ground Station
If conditions are favorable we will relay audio to EchoLink *AMSAT* (101377) and *JK1ZRW* (277208) servers
Streaming Audio at: https://sites.google.com/site/arissaudio/
Audio on Echolink & web stream is generally transmitted around 20 minutes prior to the contact taking place so that you can hear some of the preparation that occurs. IRLP will begin just prior to the ground station call to the ISS.
Please note that on Echolink there are automatic breaks of 1.5 seconds in the audio transmission. These occur every 2.5 minutes during the event. Breaks on IRLP are manual and occur approximately after every third question.
** Contact times are approximate. If the ISS executes a reboost or other manoeuvre, the AOS (Acquisition Of Signal) time may alter by a few minutes.
ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the participating space agencies, NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA, and CSA, with the AMSAT and IARU organizations from participating countries.
ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers on-board the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology, and learning. Further information on the ARISS program is available on the website http://www.ariss.org/ (graciously hosted by the Radio Amateurs of Canada).
Thank you & 73,
David - AA4KN